Yesterday my lit class had members of the Gitano (gypsy) community come speak to us about the origins and nature of their culture. Before coming to Sevilla I had no idea the strength of the presence that los gitanos have here, and it’s a culture that I’ve been curious about since arriving. The Gitano culture is the origin of almost all things quintessentially Spanish, the most prominent of these being flamenco which was used as an expression of frustration and pain in response to the historic oppression the community has experienced. The gitanos came from India beginning in the 7th century, migrating in groups of 50 to 100 for hundreds of years and eventually achieving the presence that they have today. They are set apart by extreme values of family, solidarity, and adaptation, all of which are the most fascinating in their level of extremity. If a gitana woman leaves her family to set off on her own, for example, she no longer calls herself a gitana – she is literally expelled from the culture. The solidarity amongst gitanos is admirable – if gitanos recognize another Gitano who doesn’t have a family, he will be essentially taken in no questions asked. To be without family is not an option for these people, and I think they have such a beautiful sense of unbridled compassion. It is customary for flamenco to be performed as husband and wife, which is beautiful. Both start learning the music and dance from their families when theyre not even 7 years old and perfect it for years, eventually performing together after marriage.
Today my social justice class went to El Vacie, a shantytown that is literally a two minute walk from my volunteer site. Right on the outskirts of Sevilla, it is where about 1000 gitanos call home. It is primarily constructed out of makeshift houses of wood and cardboard, and provides communal showers and water for its people. It is a place of abysmal living conditions, largely due to the marginalization of the Gitano community. However, its counterpart is called Tres Mil Viviendas, a government project that provides housing, water, and electricity and where many gitanos were replaced to. While this project counteracted the effects of marginalization, it has backfired as a result of the disproportionate resources that projects such as Tres Mil Viviendas provide: namely, education. People are simply replaced there and given resources without any idea of how to properly allocate and preserve them, and so they exploit them. Drugs and crime are rampant in Tres Mil. While not nearly as prominent in El Vacie, the government is reluctant to spend any real time there observing the culture and the people and providing them with a more holistic response to their needs. So, the gitanos stay marginalized. We visited an organization today that provides many services to the children of the Vacie community, such as preschool, breakfast and lunch, a place to have a siesta, clean water to bathe in. Hopefully these resources will give these kids a better chance at survival and at developing their own skills to do so. It was unbelievable and humbling to see how close El Vacie is to Sevilla proper. The question of whether the gitanos want to and should integrate more completely in the Spanish culture is made all the more complicated by seeing conditions such as those in the shantytowns – it should be so simple, allocate more resources to these people, but there is so much tied up in that. The distinct Gitano culture, for one, makes for a very suspicious people who do not necessarily value formal education – particularly if it comes from the public government, which will teach and reinforce Spanish values, not Gitano ones. Their most fundamental values inherently make integration difficult, and it is also a question of whether they even want to integrate and perhaps give up a piece of their cultural heritage versus the human rights that should be universally guaranteed regardless of cultural identification.
I am still quite daunted by the task of writing about my 8 days in Italy and Greece but I do want to share it. So keep an eye out, I’ll get my act together sooner or later!
Besitos!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Barcelona Is....
Barcelona is wonderful. I had no idea what to expect other than crazy architecture and the 9th best chocolate store in the world. But it is so much more than that – so much so that I didn’t even get to the chocolate store, nor did I get my beloved cupcake that I set out to find with such determination. Yep, I forewent legendary sweets and baked goods, so you know this trip was a big deal. I got off the Metro Friday afternoon to a huge port filled with the sails of private boats, yachts, and even floating restaurants. The first smell to hit me (other than the Metro Musk, which I don’t feel like I need to recount) was sunscreen, and I was LOVING IT. I walked to our beachfront hostel and met up with SARA YUSKO (hey girl you’re famous, at least among the 8 people who read my blog other than my parents) and some of her friends from the Notre Dame program in London. We had a great afternoon on the beach, which was a pleasant surprise. I had wanted to jump into seeing some sights immediately, but as soon as I sat down I realized how much I wanted to be lying on a beach. So we did that. And then we ate delicious seafood paella at a restaurant on the water.
The rest of the weekend was just as relaxing. We kept a great balance of tourist-ing and beaching. The weather all weekend was ideal for both. “Abundant sunshine,” according to weather.com. It was hard to get a feel for the people in Barcelona – it seemed to me to be very much a city of tourists, although much of that probably was because we hit all the tourist spots. I will always wonder where all the Barcelonians were hiding this weekend!
As for the sights:
- Parc Guell. INCREDIBLE. This park was filled with unique mosaics and designs. We pretty much had to walk up a ninety degree (180 degree? Straight up) incline to reach it, but it was well worth it. Like a playground for grownups (although as a kid I would have FLIPPED for this place).
- Sagrada Familia. A magnificently unique cathedral begun by Gaudi and still under construction for at least 10 more years. It is one of a kind because nobody in history liked his style enough to copy it (though it is so intricate, few people could). I sat and just took it in for a long while. It is absolutely necessary to see in Barcelona – for a good five minutes, all I could say was, “wow.” It is certainly striking at 1st glance and 2nd, and 3rd.
- Lunch at Mercat de la Boqueria, lots of colors and smells, though free samples are scarce so I wouldn’t see any reason to go back there personally.
That night, we ate Mexican food and found a bar to watch the Barcelona-Real Madrid soccer game in (Barcelona won!). The next morning I got up and went to the Cathedral for mass, then hit the Picasso museum which I LOVED. I never really knew nor cared much about Picasso (I suck, whatever) but this museum presented the progression of his art over the course of his life in such a fascinating way. I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. The museum is tucked away a bit into some side streets, which made it all the more fun to discover.
AND now I am home, heading to Portugal on Friday until Sunday, will be home for FERIA until the end of next week, then going to the Costa del Sol to soak up some Sol (sun)! I’m happy that I’ll be able to fully experience Feria while still traveling a bit when people flock to Sevilla. Sevilla has been inundated with tourists ever since a few weeks before Semana Santa and it is a bit much for me. It’s such a clash of foreign and familiar, although the interesting thing is, hearing all the English and seeing all the people of my heritage and brand preferences (think North Face and Starbucks) is kind of more the foreign part. I have been getting used to feeling like a black sheep lost in a big city – uh, combo of metaphors there, go with it. Spain is my place to feel like a lost American wide-eyed mess, not like I can walk up to a stranger and have them speak to me in English! It really messes with my mind. I have heard that the culmination of Feria is the peak tourist time. It’s funny that the draw of an event so deeply cultural as feria can be almost countercultural in how much it attracts people of other cultures. I don’t know if this goes for feria, but I think semana santa is gaining the reputation in Spain for being an overwhelming, overcrowded mess of tourists blocking the streets. Many Spaniards of more recent generations, my senora included, take Semana Santa as a time to leave! That also might be because Spain isn’t as religious in principle as it is in tradition, but it is certainly a factor. Neverthess, Semana Santa and Feria are still decidedly Spanish and I am so glad that coming abroad in the spring has given me the opportunity to experience them.
The rest of the weekend was just as relaxing. We kept a great balance of tourist-ing and beaching. The weather all weekend was ideal for both. “Abundant sunshine,” according to weather.com. It was hard to get a feel for the people in Barcelona – it seemed to me to be very much a city of tourists, although much of that probably was because we hit all the tourist spots. I will always wonder where all the Barcelonians were hiding this weekend!
As for the sights:
- Parc Guell. INCREDIBLE. This park was filled with unique mosaics and designs. We pretty much had to walk up a ninety degree (180 degree? Straight up) incline to reach it, but it was well worth it. Like a playground for grownups (although as a kid I would have FLIPPED for this place).
- Sagrada Familia. A magnificently unique cathedral begun by Gaudi and still under construction for at least 10 more years. It is one of a kind because nobody in history liked his style enough to copy it (though it is so intricate, few people could). I sat and just took it in for a long while. It is absolutely necessary to see in Barcelona – for a good five minutes, all I could say was, “wow.” It is certainly striking at 1st glance and 2nd, and 3rd.
- Lunch at Mercat de la Boqueria, lots of colors and smells, though free samples are scarce so I wouldn’t see any reason to go back there personally.
That night, we ate Mexican food and found a bar to watch the Barcelona-Real Madrid soccer game in (Barcelona won!). The next morning I got up and went to the Cathedral for mass, then hit the Picasso museum which I LOVED. I never really knew nor cared much about Picasso (I suck, whatever) but this museum presented the progression of his art over the course of his life in such a fascinating way. I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. The museum is tucked away a bit into some side streets, which made it all the more fun to discover.
AND now I am home, heading to Portugal on Friday until Sunday, will be home for FERIA until the end of next week, then going to the Costa del Sol to soak up some Sol (sun)! I’m happy that I’ll be able to fully experience Feria while still traveling a bit when people flock to Sevilla. Sevilla has been inundated with tourists ever since a few weeks before Semana Santa and it is a bit much for me. It’s such a clash of foreign and familiar, although the interesting thing is, hearing all the English and seeing all the people of my heritage and brand preferences (think North Face and Starbucks) is kind of more the foreign part. I have been getting used to feeling like a black sheep lost in a big city – uh, combo of metaphors there, go with it. Spain is my place to feel like a lost American wide-eyed mess, not like I can walk up to a stranger and have them speak to me in English! It really messes with my mind. I have heard that the culmination of Feria is the peak tourist time. It’s funny that the draw of an event so deeply cultural as feria can be almost countercultural in how much it attracts people of other cultures. I don’t know if this goes for feria, but I think semana santa is gaining the reputation in Spain for being an overwhelming, overcrowded mess of tourists blocking the streets. Many Spaniards of more recent generations, my senora included, take Semana Santa as a time to leave! That also might be because Spain isn’t as religious in principle as it is in tradition, but it is certainly a factor. Neverthess, Semana Santa and Feria are still decidedly Spanish and I am so glad that coming abroad in the spring has given me the opportunity to experience them.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
I'm back!
I have been gone the past week on my spring break trip and just got back to Sevilla yesterday! Details about my trip to Italy and Greece coming soon, but I wanted to talk first about the celebration that has been going on in Sevilla and other parts of Spain this past week. Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the week leading up to Easter, and in Sevilla, they go all-out for it. It is a celebration that is only rivaled by Feria de Abril, the spring fair that will take place in two weeks (and for which we will get another week off of class!). The entire city transforms as it must work around las processiones, which are the identifying feature of Semana Santa. In Sevilla, there are around 60 brotherhoods that each identify with a specific church. During Semana Santa, the days consist of the different brotherhoods performing las processiones, or processions from the doors of their church to the cathedral and back. Each procession has an enormous wooden float (paso) depicting mary and jesus, and it is carried by costaleros, men from the brotherhood. The paso is preceded by lengthy lines of other men from the brotherhood, the nazarenos. Seeing the nazarenos takes some getting used to, because they wear capirotes, the same pointed cone-shaped hats that the KKK wear. During Semana Santa, the capirotes represent repentance and grief, so that men could traditionally hide their faces during penance. As an American, it requires a conscious effort to separate the religious significance from the hate that these costumes symbolize in the US. However, it is an incredible, reverent sight to see a procession. The processions can last up to 13 hours depending upon which brotherhood it is! The main streets of the city literally shut down as they are filled with these processions and all their spectators.
The biggest celebrations and processions happen on holy thursday and good friday, which I unfortunately was not here for. However, I arrived back in Sevilla yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, early enough that I could go watch the salida (the beginning of a procession, when the brotherhood exits their church) of a brotherhood that was happening right by my house. I have truly never seen anything like it. It took over an hour for the nazarenos to process out before the float - there easily were over 1000 of them. The float finally came out last, moving along at the pace of the costaleros' shuffling feet. It was covered in gold paint and had a huge image of mary at the top, adorned by lots of candles. When the float came out, the entire plaza fell silent. A woman came out onto a balcony of a building across from the church and began to sing, and the float shuffled along toward her, as it would do for the next six hours. I will post pictures of it soon; it was so cool.
Today is Easter Sunday, which isn't as big of a deal here as Good Friday, but it is still observed. I went to the Catedral for mass, and was delighted to discover organ music! It's my first mass I've been to here that has had music, and I have really missed it. City's pretty quiet otherwise; all the setup that began a good month before Semana Santa is being taken down, and it is a beautiful day. I took my time walking home and am going to go sit by the river soon and enjoy some sun!
My entry about Italy and Greece will probably be far longer than you will ever want to read, but even so - it's coming soon! Promise!
The biggest celebrations and processions happen on holy thursday and good friday, which I unfortunately was not here for. However, I arrived back in Sevilla yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, early enough that I could go watch the salida (the beginning of a procession, when the brotherhood exits their church) of a brotherhood that was happening right by my house. I have truly never seen anything like it. It took over an hour for the nazarenos to process out before the float - there easily were over 1000 of them. The float finally came out last, moving along at the pace of the costaleros' shuffling feet. It was covered in gold paint and had a huge image of mary at the top, adorned by lots of candles. When the float came out, the entire plaza fell silent. A woman came out onto a balcony of a building across from the church and began to sing, and the float shuffled along toward her, as it would do for the next six hours. I will post pictures of it soon; it was so cool.
Today is Easter Sunday, which isn't as big of a deal here as Good Friday, but it is still observed. I went to the Catedral for mass, and was delighted to discover organ music! It's my first mass I've been to here that has had music, and I have really missed it. City's pretty quiet otherwise; all the setup that began a good month before Semana Santa is being taken down, and it is a beautiful day. I took my time walking home and am going to go sit by the river soon and enjoy some sun!
My entry about Italy and Greece will probably be far longer than you will ever want to read, but even so - it's coming soon! Promise!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Monos y Museos (Monkeys and Museums)
Looking back, this has been kind of a busy week even though we had a day off from school. I started my volunteering on Wednesday - I am volunteering at a hospital with an organization called Solidarios. Essentially, we just go to talk to the patients, particularly those who do not have any family members visiting. It is a really good thing and I am so excited to work with this organization. I had a pretty hard time of it at my first day. I am still lacking a lot of confidence in my conversation skills, so I really did a lot of standing and listening. The people I work with are so nice and understanding that I am not very strong in my Spanish, although I think they think i understand less than I actually do. It is a bit frustrating, but they are such good people and I think I can learn a lot from them. At the moment, it's looking like this volunteering experience is going to have to help me a bit first before I can help it. Hopefully I will feel a bit more comfortable next time. I was uncomfortable this week, really uncomfortable. But I am definitely sticking it out.
Yesterday, my interest group (kind of like a club) took us to Gibraltar! It was probably the only time I will have any reason to go to Gibraltar, but it was very interesting and quite a sight to see. Gibraltar is a British-owned territory of about 28,000 all situated on, literally, one mountain-sized rock. Since it is British, English is largely spoken there - it was kind of a nice break from Spanish. We even had a presentation in English, so I am pretty sure that for once I got all my facts right! After the presentation and a stop for fish and chips, and pastries (duh), the group went to figure out a way to climb that mountain of rock and see the infamous Gibraltarian monkeys (...I don't know how infamous they actually are, but I had definitely never heard of them before yesterday). The cheapest means we found were two men driving white vans who eventually convinced us that they were real tour guides and that the rate of 20 euro/person that they offered was our best shot (both of which were actually true, so it ended up working out really well!). Both drivers were really nice and funny and drove us up the winding roads along the mountain, giving us some history and pointing out the best places to stop and take in the sights. We stopped at the pillar of Hercules, from which you can see Africa (only 14 miles away!), where there is an identical pillar. We also went to some incredible caves (I took some pictures in these ones!) and some tunnels from back when Gibraltar was under siege. Or something. All of which was very cool. We ran into our first monkeys outside the caves (see photo below for a chronicle of how enjoyable THAT experience was. Just kidding, it was pretty cool.) It was good to have our tour guides with us for this experience, because it turns out there is a lot more to those little monkeys than meets the eye. The guides advised us to leave all plastic bags in the van, or else the monkeys would see them and get aggressive, knowing that they probably contained food. The older monkeys are also known to get jealous when humans pay attention to the little ones, and the guides knew exactly how to keep the older ones from attacking (thank god!). The monkeys were pretty nuts - they were climbing all over the vans, and we even saw one that had a bloody nose from a fight! That species is not for the faint of heart. As we went up and up and the mountain, we saw some incredible views too. I got some pictures, but I really don't think I was able to truly capture how awesome it was. After that experience, we left and headed back to the bus. Luckily it didn't rain all day, even though it was supposed to! It was a really fun, albeit random, place to travel to.
Today, I went to the contemporary art museum - that was an experience for sure. To be perfectly honest, I really did not get most of the art that was there. I liked the photography though. A lot of it actually had American captions and took place on American backdrops, with signs and things in the background all written in English. The museum was very much out in the middle of nowhere in an old monastery, but it was a nice thing to do on a Saturday afternoon!
Up next...Hmm, I don't know. Guess you'll just have to check again soon! Thanks for reading :)
Yesterday, my interest group (kind of like a club) took us to Gibraltar! It was probably the only time I will have any reason to go to Gibraltar, but it was very interesting and quite a sight to see. Gibraltar is a British-owned territory of about 28,000 all situated on, literally, one mountain-sized rock. Since it is British, English is largely spoken there - it was kind of a nice break from Spanish. We even had a presentation in English, so I am pretty sure that for once I got all my facts right! After the presentation and a stop for fish and chips, and pastries (duh), the group went to figure out a way to climb that mountain of rock and see the infamous Gibraltarian monkeys (...I don't know how infamous they actually are, but I had definitely never heard of them before yesterday). The cheapest means we found were two men driving white vans who eventually convinced us that they were real tour guides and that the rate of 20 euro/person that they offered was our best shot (both of which were actually true, so it ended up working out really well!). Both drivers were really nice and funny and drove us up the winding roads along the mountain, giving us some history and pointing out the best places to stop and take in the sights. We stopped at the pillar of Hercules, from which you can see Africa (only 14 miles away!), where there is an identical pillar. We also went to some incredible caves (I took some pictures in these ones!) and some tunnels from back when Gibraltar was under siege. Or something. All of which was very cool. We ran into our first monkeys outside the caves (see photo below for a chronicle of how enjoyable THAT experience was. Just kidding, it was pretty cool.) It was good to have our tour guides with us for this experience, because it turns out there is a lot more to those little monkeys than meets the eye. The guides advised us to leave all plastic bags in the van, or else the monkeys would see them and get aggressive, knowing that they probably contained food. The older monkeys are also known to get jealous when humans pay attention to the little ones, and the guides knew exactly how to keep the older ones from attacking (thank god!). The monkeys were pretty nuts - they were climbing all over the vans, and we even saw one that had a bloody nose from a fight! That species is not for the faint of heart. As we went up and up and the mountain, we saw some incredible views too. I got some pictures, but I really don't think I was able to truly capture how awesome it was. After that experience, we left and headed back to the bus. Luckily it didn't rain all day, even though it was supposed to! It was a really fun, albeit random, place to travel to.
Today, I went to the contemporary art museum - that was an experience for sure. To be perfectly honest, I really did not get most of the art that was there. I liked the photography though. A lot of it actually had American captions and took place on American backdrops, with signs and things in the background all written in English. The museum was very much out in the middle of nowhere in an old monastery, but it was a nice thing to do on a Saturday afternoon!
Up next...Hmm, I don't know. Guess you'll just have to check again soon! Thanks for reading :)
Friday, March 5, 2010
ME IN GIBRALTAR WITH A MONKEY ON MY HEAD GOTTA GO BYE
I am half-inclined to offer a prize to anyone who comes up with the best caption for this photo, but that would require me to give one of you some kind of reward, and I probably would not follow through on that. Don't want to get your hopes up.
In general, Gibraltar was AWESOME. more later I promise!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
When you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.
From now on, I am deliberately setting out to have at least one awkward moment with Spanish a day. I am just literally going to say whatever pops into my head, talk to anyone, and ask the dumb questions that my pride has been holding back. At the end of the semester, I'll be fluent. So, that's the plan. I'll let you know how it goes. I think things are about to get a bit more interesting!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Tio Pepe, the uncle I never knew I had.
This weekend marks the annual celebration of dia de Andalucia, the region of spain that I am in. The actual holiday was yesterday (Sunday), but the Spaniards jump on any chance they get to shut things down and siesta, so everything was closed down today. The long weekend gave everyone the chance to travel, but I stuck around with a few others and am very glad that I did. I really needed the weekend to just collect myself and had the chance to go explore some parts of Sevilla that I hadn’t seen yet. My senora Yolanda and roommate were both gone all weekend, so I had the apartment all to myself! I watched movies and laid around eating for most of the weekend and it was fantastic.
On Friday, some friends and I set out to have a really Spanish day, and I think it was pretty successful! We went to the movies and saw Princess and the Frog, the new Disney movie – we figured they’d talk slower in a children’s movie. We got palomitas (popcorn!) and crowded into the theater, which oddly had assigned seats. It was a pretty good deal for the whole experience, about six euro. After that, we went to a play put on by students of the University of Sevilla. It was a two-person show about two children whose fathers had gone off to war, and the play depicted the effects of the war on the children through the way they played and interacted. I thought it was pretty clever.
Yesterday, I tried to go to mass again. I liked it a little more than last time. I went to the University mass this time around, which was all right. No singing again, which bothers me. There were cell phones going off and people talking and many other distractions, which I am beginning to suspect might just be a norm at mass here. The church itself was much less gaudy than the first one, which was nice. However, I am still looking for my church!
After mass, I had some time to kill before I met up with some friends for exploring, so I found a little park and ate there. I hung out there eating and reading for a bit, and I was even asked for directions by a Spaniard! I am sooo legitimate. So once all the eating and reading and directing was done, I found my friends and we went to the Plaza de Espana, which I think is the most impressive thing I’ve seen in Sevilla next to the Catedral. Plaza de Espana was built in the 30s-ish when Sevilla hosted the World Fair, or something like that, and it was just amazing. An enormous plaza with different tiles at least ten feet tall, each depicting a different city in Spain. Pictures soon!
Today, out of a little bit of boredom and a lot of a bit of a desire to experience a bodega (winery), Becky, Lauren, Emily and I hopped on a bus and went to Jerez, a town about an hour south of here that is considered part of the pueblos blancos. It’s known for its sherries, and the bodega we toured did not disappoint. We toured Gonzalez Byass, where Tio Pepe comes from – a type of wine (sherry? Same thing? Maybe? Clearly I learned a lot today…) Tio Pepe is one of Spain’s biggest exports, so it was a pretty big deal. The tour was a blast – we rode a train around the bodega, and the weather was beautiful, and there was a wine tasting at the end which we all very much enjoyed. We spent the rest of the day just wandering Jerez, although there was not much to do there as they were celebrating dia de Andalucia too. It was a good way to spend a day off, I think.
We have a short three-day week of classes this week, and then on Friday I am headed to Gibraltar for the day! Pictures with monkeys soon to follow.
On Friday, some friends and I set out to have a really Spanish day, and I think it was pretty successful! We went to the movies and saw Princess and the Frog, the new Disney movie – we figured they’d talk slower in a children’s movie. We got palomitas (popcorn!) and crowded into the theater, which oddly had assigned seats. It was a pretty good deal for the whole experience, about six euro. After that, we went to a play put on by students of the University of Sevilla. It was a two-person show about two children whose fathers had gone off to war, and the play depicted the effects of the war on the children through the way they played and interacted. I thought it was pretty clever.
Yesterday, I tried to go to mass again. I liked it a little more than last time. I went to the University mass this time around, which was all right. No singing again, which bothers me. There were cell phones going off and people talking and many other distractions, which I am beginning to suspect might just be a norm at mass here. The church itself was much less gaudy than the first one, which was nice. However, I am still looking for my church!
After mass, I had some time to kill before I met up with some friends for exploring, so I found a little park and ate there. I hung out there eating and reading for a bit, and I was even asked for directions by a Spaniard! I am sooo legitimate. So once all the eating and reading and directing was done, I found my friends and we went to the Plaza de Espana, which I think is the most impressive thing I’ve seen in Sevilla next to the Catedral. Plaza de Espana was built in the 30s-ish when Sevilla hosted the World Fair, or something like that, and it was just amazing. An enormous plaza with different tiles at least ten feet tall, each depicting a different city in Spain. Pictures soon!
Today, out of a little bit of boredom and a lot of a bit of a desire to experience a bodega (winery), Becky, Lauren, Emily and I hopped on a bus and went to Jerez, a town about an hour south of here that is considered part of the pueblos blancos. It’s known for its sherries, and the bodega we toured did not disappoint. We toured Gonzalez Byass, where Tio Pepe comes from – a type of wine (sherry? Same thing? Maybe? Clearly I learned a lot today…) Tio Pepe is one of Spain’s biggest exports, so it was a pretty big deal. The tour was a blast – we rode a train around the bodega, and the weather was beautiful, and there was a wine tasting at the end which we all very much enjoyed. We spent the rest of the day just wandering Jerez, although there was not much to do there as they were celebrating dia de Andalucia too. It was a good way to spend a day off, I think.
We have a short three-day week of classes this week, and then on Friday I am headed to Gibraltar for the day! Pictures with monkeys soon to follow.
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